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"My name is Sasha Buncamper, I am a student at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, currently carrying out my thesis research in Sint Maarten at the Bureau for Intellectual Property. Kindly assist me by completing this survey, then ask your friends and family to fill it out as well.

During the start-up phase of BIP SXM, BOIP gathered all the relevant available data concerning trademark rights valid in Sint Maarten. An online register was created based on the official publications by the Bureau for Intellectual Property Curaçao (BIP CW) between January 2001 and October 2015.

Please note the following assumptions that were made and decisions that were taken.

The Bureau for Intellectual Property Sint Maarten officially presents its first financial statement to the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication (Minister of TEATT) for approval. This took place after only ten months since the National Ordinance for the Bureau for Intellectual Property (National Ordinance BIP) came into force making the Bureau an official legal body.

As of October 1st, 2015, the Bureau for Intellectual Property of Curaçao is no longer the competent authority for registering Sint Maarten trademarks and will not handle/process any requests received on or after that date.

The Bureau for Intellectual Property of Sint Maarten (BIP SXM) in cooperation with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) will open for business on-line on Monday, October 5, 2015.

The National Ordinance BIP is planned to go into effect in October 2015. This will enable private persons and businesses in Sint Maarten and our neighboring islands in the region can register their national as well as their international trademarks via the online registration system.

As of today all international trademark registrations valid in Sint Maarten are included in the online register. They will be mentioned in the list of trademarks found after a search and can also be retrieved by their registration numbers. For detailed information concerning these international trademarks, the online register provides a link to the WIPO ROMARIN database, their original source.

During the startup phase of BIP SXM, BOIP has been working on gathering all the relevant data concerning trademark rights valid in Sint Maarten. Based upon the official publications by the Curacao Bureau for Intellectual Property (BIP CW) between January 2001 and November 2014 (the latest official publication available at this time ( April 2015)) BOIP set up the register as it is now available online. Please note the following assumptions that were made and decision that were taken.